Perhaps the guiltiest of guilty pleasures, Crank
Yankers has a way of overcoming one's ethical conflicts about prank phone
calls with some very funny examples of the practice. Comic talents Wanda Sykes,
Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle and others join the Touchstone
Terrorists and musical duo Tenacious D in tormenting innocent people with
ridiculous communications. Among the 10 episodes of season 1 is Sykes's
outrageous call to an auto mechanic, claiming that someone at the guy's shop
defecated in her car. Unlike many of the innocent recipients of Crank
Yankers's harassment, the bemused mechanic turns the tables on the crazed
woman and goads her into making more ridiculous claims. Elsewhere, a pet shop
owner takes a call from an "old woman" (Susie Essman) complaining about her
obscene parrot while the bird can be heard calling her "whore" in the
background. Other choice moments include an apparently slow-witted comic-book
fan (Jordan Rubin) pestering directory assistance for Batman's phone number, a
"blind woman" (Lisa Kushell) applying for a job as a stripper (requiring her
seeing-eye dog in the act), and a great bit in which a fellow (Denis Leary)
convinces a sex-supply store salesman to pretend to be a pizza-delivery man in
order to fool Leary's mom.